This invention relates to ice cream making machines, and more particularly to a portable machine for making ice cream or other frozen comestibles from liquid ingredients.
Ice cream making machines are well known and various models are available on the market. Many of the large units include internal compressors with coils through which a cooling liquid passes in order to provide adequate reduced temperatures for the formation of the ice cream. Some available machines are associated with into freezers and utilize the flow through the freezing coils of the freezer for the reduced temperatures required for making the ice cream. One such machine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,566.
Most types of ice cream making machines require special ingredients in order to form the ice cream. Such ingredients typically include a cream substance, sugar,, starches, and various other products either mixed together or purchased as a premix, and utilized in the formation of the ice cream.
One of the considerations of a useful ice cream making machine is the time required for producing the output. Many of the existing machines take a considerable amount of time from when the ingredients are inserted until the final product is produced. These machines are not desirable because of such lag in time. Another criteria for a good machine is the quality of the product. The final product must be one that is of good consistency, that is smooth, well blended, without the presence of lumpy or unwanted particles, and tasty. This aspect, namely the quality of the product, is the most important criteria for a successful ice cream making machine.
While such ice cream making machines are readily available and described in various prior art references, nevertheless none of the available device have provided an adequate quality product at sufficiently fast rate with continuous reproducable consistent results and which is easy to use, simply to assemble, and easy to clean and maintain.
It should be appreciated, that although ice cream making machines are described, the term "ice cream" is meant in a generic sense and refers to various types of frozen comestibles including ices, ice creams, ice milks, and the like.